Private and unpublished correspondence by the South African poet Roy Campbell recently came into my possession. In a letter to Francis C. Slater, written in Rome sometime between September 1938 and February 1939, Campbell writes that “journalists are the greatest Social Poison the world has yet seen”. He goes on: “It is a treat to…

A belligerent government claims victory. A defiant coalition of media and civil society organisations vows that it will seek legal recourse. The decision to ram through parliament the so-called ‘secrecy Bill’ on what has been dubbed Black Tuesday – the vote was brought forward by a day in a futile attempt to avoid embarrassing comparisons…